In article <57dl6m$v2p@b.stat.purdue.edu>, hrubin@b.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:>In article <329A513D.310F@con2.com>, Lou Goldstein <loug@con2.com> wrote:>>I agree that it is frustrating when some children lose their opportunity>>to learn in order to help someone else. But let's not be so cavalier>>about deciding whose opportunity to sacrifice. If your child were the>>one being locked away and deprived of the opportunity to reach her full>>potential, you might not be so willing to have special ed kids settle>>for education in the (limited) skills that will gear them for their>>(limited) role in society.>>Nobody is suggesting that children lose their opportunity to learn.>But anyone who cannot recognize that children with different abilities>and preparation should not be learning in the same manner and at the>same rate just because they are the same age is ignorant, stupid, or>a Marxist social engineer type.>> ..............>>>Beyond that, if you wish to persuade the public that inclusion is a bad>>idea, it is incumbent upon you to come up with an alternative strategy>>that meets statutory and constitutional requirements of equity,>>I suggest we get rid of most of the statutory stupidity; children are>not of equal ability. There are no Constitutional requirements for>children of different abilities to be in the same classroom.>>allows>>those special ed students who have the capacity to do so to learn as>>much as their regular ed peers,>>I would like to see EVERYONE who places children by age removed from>the serious business of teaching. A genius and someone with limited>mental capacity should not be in the same classroom, and neither of>them should be in the same classroom with "normal" children. Even>normal children are sufficiently varied to require different educational>programs.>>and gives special ed students the social>>exposure and acceptance they need in order to become full and equal>>participants in society. But don't just throw them out of the regular>>ed classroom and leave them stigmatized, marginally-educated, and out of>>sight.>>If two children do not have sufficiently similar "smarts" that their>individual optimal rate of progression in a given subject are close>to equal, they should not progress in the same manner. If a school>cannot do this, it does not deserve the title of educational.>-- >Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399>hrubin@stat.purdue.edu Phone: (317)494-6054 FAX: (317)494-0558

I have not read these newsgroups for some time, but seem to remember somegood math-related advice from Prof. Rubin. I am now glad he added thesepedagogical comments. I couldn't agree more...and as a parent who hashad to fight the social engineering educational establishment (read:public ed. BOEs!!!!) for years.